Preview
VERTREK ENSEMBLE
Saturday, February 22
EMmedia Gallery
Edmonton’s Vertrek Ensemble is audacious, spontaneous and joyful in its pursuit of improvised music and world-renowned musical partners to perform it with.
Guitarist and cornet player Vadim Budman met percussionist Ron de Jong working in a record store. Both had previously played music in different contexts – including rock, jazz and metal – but it wasn’t until they stepped onstage together at the Yardbird Suite (an Edmonton jazz club) that they found their improvisatory niche.
Now, six years later, Budman runs the Volatile records label, which has released three albums by Vertrek, an album by a Bulgarian folk trio and, most recently, an album by weirdo banjo and mandolin player Eugene Chadbourne (for the record, it’s Bach’s Partitas and Sonatas for Violins transcribed for mandolin).
On Vertrek’s latest album, Departures, the ensemble is joined by guitarist Derek Bailey, one of the world’s foremost improvisers. Chance played a big role in this recording – De Jong had called Bailey’s Incus recording label to straighten out a problem with a money order. Bailey, who normally lets the label staff handle the phones, happened to answer the call and the two of them ended up talking. As Budman says, "I guess Derek just took a shinin’ to him."
Bailey was to play with Vertrek while he was in Canada for a festival but, unfortunately, the show was cancelled due to illness. When he recovered, Bailey invited Vertrek to perform with him in England.
"Well, he didn’t have to ask us twice," says Budman. "It was very exciting – for the first few minutes it was very intimidating, especially being a guitar player myself. (Bailey) is nonchalant and has been doing this so long – he knows what he wants…. He was very relaxed and made us feel relaxed.
"After a while, it wasn’t us playing with Derek Bailey, it was just three guys making music."
Chadbourne’s association with the group was similarly fortuitous.
"Because we got such huge egos after the Derek Bailey gig, we figured we could just call up anybody and it’s no problem," says Budman. "Eugene said, ‘Since you’ve played with the best, there is no way but down, and that obviously would lead you to me.’"
This intrepid, go-get-it-and-do-it-yourself ethic is close to the politics of punk and grunge – quoting De Jong, Budman says, "We have blue Mohawks on the inside." |
